StPatrick’sDay stabbings

March 1998

Two serious stabbing attacks marred St Patrick’s Day celebrations this week.

In one incident a Newtownmountkennedy man was knifed in the neck as he travelled to Bray on the Dart. In the other a hotel employee was slashed in the neck with a bottle as he attempted to apprehend an intruder.

A total of seven people are set to appear in court in connection with the two incidents.

The attack on the Dart occurred as the Wicklow man was set upon by a man armed with a knife as he travelled home on the last train.

The victim was assaulted and cut on the neck by his attacker, and was rushed to St Michael’s Hospital in Dun Laoghaire for treatment.

The incident happened as the Dart travelled between Glashule and Dalkey at around 11.30 p.m. Gardai from Dalkey were at their local station to make an arrest by the time the train arrived.

They detained a man for questioning a short distance from the railway station. A file is being prepared for the DPP. Six men were arrested following an incident on the grounds of The Summerhill Hotel in Enniskerry at 2.30 a.m. on St Patrick’s morning.

Hotel staff discovered a number of intruders attempteing to remove barrells of beer from a hotel yard. They gave chase when the culprits fled.

A struggle developed when one of the intruders was apprehended, and in the ensuing scuffle a staff member was cut on the neck with a broken bottle.

Gardai, who carried out a subsequent search of the hotel grounds, made a total of six arrests. Five of the men who were detained for questioning were from Bray, while the sixth was from Wicklow Town.